Advances in biosensing strategies for HIV-1 detection, diagnosis, and therapeutic monitoring

Abstract

HIV is a major global epidemic that requires sophisticated clinical management. While there have been remarkable efforts to develop new strategies for detecting and treating HIV, it has been challenging to translate them into resource-limited settings. Significant research efforts have been recently devoted to developing point-of-care (POC) diagnostics that can monitor HIV viral load with high sensitivity by leveraging micro- and nano-scale technologies. These POC devices can be applied to monitoring antiretroviral therapy, early infant detection of HIV during mother-to-child transmission, and identification of latent HIV reservoirs. In this review, we discuss current challenges in HIV diagnosis and therapy in resource-limited settings and present emerging technologies that aim to solve these challenges using novel micro- and nanoscale solutions.

A Spirulina maxima-derived peptide inhibits HIV-1 infection in a human T cell line MT4

“…Because of the high prevalence and mortality associated with HIV infections, many researchers have focused on finding ways to fight the infection and improve the life span of HIV-infected individuals. So far, there are five major classes of anti-HIV-1 drugs that targeted distinct steps in the HIV life cycle: reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, fusion inhibitors, integrase inhibitors, and multidrug combinations (Lifson et al, 2016). These drugs, though effective, do not cure HIV/AIDS.…”

Nanosensor networks for health-care applications

“…The assay cost is high and the labeling may alter the binding affinity of molecules. The number of binding sites and the dissociation constants of a receptor are related to the ratio of the number of ligand-bound receptors to the total number of receptors on the sensor and can be obtained in either one-binding or multiple-binding site models [15,16]. The use of HEMTs allows rapid determination of these parameters.…”

Photonic crystals: emerging biosensors and their promise for point-of-care applications

“…14,27–29,30 Thus, there exists a need to develop affordable, sensitive, rapid, portable, label-free, and user-friendly POC diagnostic tools. 31–33 …”